ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

There are two full moons this month: the Flower Moon on May 1st and a Blue Moon this coming Sunday, on the 31st. And because I have two moons of my own in mind this month, it seems a good time to mention the children's novels I'll be publishing later this year: Moon's Travelling Circus, and the sequel, The Voyage of the Molly Moon.

As a child growing up in Owl's House, that place on the southern tip of Africa that I remember with such affection, the stories I loved most were always about magic and enchantment. Princesses, goblins and deep, dark forests; witches, mermaids and dragons. (I still have shelves full of them, to share with the  grandchildren and to re-read myself.) 

Old favourites

Somehow though, I never managed to find a really magical story set in the part of the world I lived in. We had folk tales, animal and school stories, safari adventures, and books about ordinary, everyday things - many of which I loved - but no Faraway Trees, or ships that flew. They all seemed to belong to children in other far-off countries, and it didn't seem fair. 

My childhood ocean. Whales and sharks
often spotted, but no sea serpents

Which is why I wrote Moon's Travelling Circus, in which a girl with an African  mother and Irish father finds herself on a magical journey through African time and  space. An ancient amulet, a travelling circus, a sorcerer, a time-traveller, dragons and cats all play their parts. And I enjoyed writing it so much that I wrote a sequel - The Voyage of the Molly Moon - in which the main characters are reunited on a voyage around the northern coast of Ireland in search of something lost long ago. In this one there are sea-witches and a sea monster, mysterious lighthouses, and yes, a ship that flies. 

Sadly, both languished with my agent, who loved but couldn't place them. This is hardly surprising because my children's books are undeniably traditional. There are no major traumas or adult issues in them; in fact there are hardly any adults, apart from retired circus people and hotel proprietors whose guests rarely come in through the doors. But the handful of children who have read these stories have given me some wonderful responses. I still treasure the message from a book-loving great-nephew, beginning 'Great-Aunt Helen, this is the best book I have ever read in my LIFE!'  (And no, he wasn't in line for an inheritance.)

So they'll both be published under the Owl's House Press imprint created by Averill Buchanan, with beautiful cover illustrations by the wonderful Rebecca Elliot. (Detail from The Voyage of the Molly Moon on the left.)

And if you're going to publish two books, why not three for luck? Because Gabriel's Angel (completed last year) is my third adult novel. It's about a girl, a garden, a grieving artist, a grumpy old woman, a second-hand bookshop and a ghost. There are links, as always, to Africa and Ireland, and there is also, inevitably, a cat, but unlike my other two adult novels - The Traveller's Guide to Love and Life Study #2 - this one is not autobiographical. (Note to my family: you'll be quite safe reading it.)

It goes without saying that I'm lucky to be able to do this - and it will almost certainly cost me more than I'll ever make back - but for me the five books now under the Owl's House imprint will be tangible proof of years of work, and will, I hope, give pleasure to the occasional reader who borrows one from a local library, or - once in a blue moon  - actually buys one!

OWL'S HOUSE PRESS

I have a great affection for The Secret Bookshelf in Carrickfergus, not just because of my admiration for the owners, Jo and Chris, and the way they've turned this little bookshop into what it is - Best Indie Bookstore (Ireland) 2024 and 2026 - but because it's by the sea. A bookshop by the sea is my idea of heaven. What's more, I always come away with something unexpected. Jan Carson and Horowitz were safe bets, but I've never read anything by T J Klune. The House in the Cerulean Sea caught my eye because of the title. A combination of house and sea - much like bookshop and sea - is hard for me to resist. 

Even more unexpected was The Last Death Poet by Stephen Daly. A book billed as a Young Adult LGBTQ+ novel with a supernatural twist is about as likely to attract me as J D Vance's upcoming memoir about his conversion to Catholicism. Some of my best friends write YA novels (very well, as it happens) but I'm ambivalent about the category and I really don't like the supernatural. Still, I'd met Stephen Daly and I liked him very much. Plus he's local, and the book is set in Belfast, so I bought it. I fully expected to skip through it, or give up after a chapter or two, instead of which I'm half-way through, and I'm hooked. And if you can hook a 77-year-old pedant with limited patience for modern trends, then good for you!

It's also a relief to find that a book which has been widely praised is actually well-written. There's so much rubbish out there, and so many good books that never see the light of day, because getting traditionally published is becoming harder and harder. Which is why, like so many others, I've  turned to self-publishing. Either way, it's a bumpy road, with rather more downs than ups. There's nothing quite as exciting as that first book launch, or seeing your novel in bookshop windows, but then there's the library reading with a turn-out of four, including your husband. Although to be fair, your granny might also have been there. She's been dead for decades, of course, but there was a familiar sighing noise, and a faint smell of wintergreen. (This is what reading Stephen Daly does for you.)

Fortunately, I do have an up of my own to report, and it's connected to a small, rented house called Owl's House in the village of Fish Hoek, near the southern tip of Africa, where I lived for a time as a child. (See detail in autobiographic-art on the right.) On one side of the valley was the Indian Ocean, on the other the Atlantic, and of all the houses I've lived in, this is the one that I remember with the greatest affection and nostalgia. It had a verandah where swallows nested in the summer, a garden where I played with my brother, and a shadowy pond full of frogs and tadpoles. Inside, like all our houses, it was full of books, and it was where I first discovered the world of my imagination.

I've lived in many different flats and houses since then, and every so often I find myself back in some town or country and am tempted to revisit the places I once knew. I've thought about doing this in Northern Ireland, a country I first came to in 1970, but Professor Gloom thinks this is a bad idea. He's probably right. Although, once in Zimbabwe, a man rang our doorbell and explained that his wife, who was with him, had lived in our house many years before. The man's name was Dan Jacobson and he seemed quite surprised when I told him how delighted I was to meet him, a fellow South African whose writing I admired. They stayed for tea and later he sent a signed copy of his autobiographical Time and Time Again, which I still have. 

But to get back to the up I mentioned earlier: with the help of my wonderful editor and publishing director (thank you, Averill Buchanan!) I have a new creative venture. My two previously published adult novels, The Traveller's Guide to Love and Life Study #2, along with two middle-grade children's fantasies, Moon's Travelling Circus and The Voyage of the Molly Moon, are all going to be brought together under the roof of my own imprint. And they'll be joined by my third adult novel, which will be published later this year. 

No doubt there'll be plenty of downs to come, but for the time being it gives me great pleasure to unveil the logo. This, as you can see, is a delightful little owl, because the imprint itself is called Owl's House Press - as a grateful tribute to that long-ago, far-off house where my love of words first began.